New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who has been mentioned as a likely vice-presidential nominee in 1996, Thursday defended Republican efforts to restructure government and denounced opponents who "are always trying to portray us as being against everything." While Whitman would not rule out accepting a vice-presidential nomination, she said in a speech at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace that she is "very happy" with the governorship and "I have no intentions of going anywhere."

September 5, 2012 | By Kathleen Hennessey and Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times

NORFOLK, Va. — President Obama told college students here Tuesday that wealthy Republican interests were hoping they would become disillusioned and discouraged by a deluge of negative political messages this fall. Those rich donors may not expect them to vote for Republican Mitt Romney, Obama said, but it will benefit Romney if the president's supporters simply decide to sit out the presidential election. "They figure that if you don't vote, big oil will write our energy future, insurance companies will write our healthcare plans, and politicians will dictate what a woman can or can't do when it comes to her own health," Obama told an outdoor rally at Norfolk State University.

Al Gore is just hitting his stride. "Do you want four more years of a read-my-lips recession?" he thunders with righteous indignation. "No," the crowd roars in unison, their boisterous reply bouncing off the walls of the cramped city hall auditorium, drowning out the torrential downpour outside. "What about four more years of a phony education President?" Again, the rabidly partisan mob answers with a lusty "Nooooo!" "Four more years of a phony environmental President?"

NEW ORLEANS - President Obama surveyed flood damage caused by Hurricane Isaac and pledged Monday that the federal government would do all it could to help victims get back on their feet. Meeting with families and local officials dealing with the disaster, Obama promised action to prevent such flooding in the future. "What I pledge to these folks is to make sure at the federal level we're getting on the case very quickly" to figure out "what exactly happened here … and make sure it doesn't happen again," he said.

SENATE WATCH II: In another closely watched Senate primary, a tight race appears likely in New York's September contest for the Democratic nod to oppose GOP incumbent Alfonse M. D'Amato. . . . A Times survey of Democrats voting in the state's April 7 presidential primary showed 30% backing the former congresswoman and former vice presidential nominee, Geraldine A. Ferraro, while 27% supported state Atty. Gen. Robert Abrams.

With an intensely personal evocation of an America "waiting for us to give it a second breath of life," Tennessee Sen. Al Gore accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president Thursday night and set off on a four-month journey to convince voters of his contention that a new generation of leaders can bind the nation's wounds.

Vice presidential nominees Dick Cheney and Joseph I. Lieberman engaged Thursday in a smooth but unrelentingly low-key encounter more likely to burnish their own images than materially affect the contest for the White House. Throughout their 90-minute session, Lieberman and Cheney were both calm and collected--in many ways more so than presidential nominees Al Gore and George W. Bush appeared in their frenetic first debate Tuesday night.

April 10, 1988 | Robert G. Beckel, Robert G. Beckel, a political analyst, was Walter F. Mondale's campaign manger in 1984.

The membership drive of the Democrats' anti-Jackson club has been waning, especially after Wisconsin. Southern and conservative leaders who might have signed up are now reconciled to the remaining primaries taking their course. While there may be the odd off-the-record quote or a slow Colorado caucus count, party leaders recognize that a nasty fight with Jackson will damage the party's chances in the fall.

The email account of Aug. 29, 2008, the day John McCain announced Palin as his running mate, tells a tale of jubilant shock and amazement from Palin devotees. Palin's staff fired off emails praising her speech – and got lots of love back from the new vice presidential nominee. "Wow governor! Just watched you on TV!" wrote budget director Karen Rehfeld. "You knocked their socks off!" RELATED: Read the Palin emails "Can you believe it!" Palin replied . "He told me yesterday -- it moved fast!

If I were assigned to interview Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan in a "one question, and one question only" scenario, I'd ask him: "Do you do P90X Yoga?" Perhaps this explains why I've never been assigned to cover the race for the White House. But I already know where Ryan stands on issues such as Medicare -- that's been covered ad nauseam. I'd actually like more coverage, please, on how Ryan manages to stick to his diet-and-fitness regimen while campaigning for the White House.

The email account of Aug. 29, 2008, the day John McCain announced Palin as his running mate, tells a tale of jubilant shock and amazement from Palin devotees. Palin's staff fired off emails praising her speech – and got lots of love back from the new vice presidential nominee. "Wow governor! Just watched you on TV!" wrote budget director Karen Rehfeld. "You knocked their socks off!" RELATED: Read the Palin emails "Can you believe it!" Palin replied . "He told me yesterday -- it moved fast!

Geraldine A. Ferraro, the savvy New York Democrat who was embraced as a symbol of women's equality in 1984 when she became the first woman nominated for vice president by a major party, died Saturday at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She was 75. The cause was complications from multiple myeloma, her family said. Ferraro was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable form of blood cancer, in 1998. She did not disclose her illness publicly until 2001, when she went on NBC's "Today" show and said she had beaten the cancer into remission with thalidomide, the once-banned drug that had proven effective with some end-stage cancers.

When Sarah Palin abruptly stepped down as Alaska governor in July before the end of her first term, many questioned how she could maintain a national presence without the platform of elected office. That hasn't proven a problem for the onetime Republican vice presidential nominee, who has kept herself at the center of political debate with a bestselling book, an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and controversial Facebook postings. Now Palin has found another way to stay in the spotlight: by signing on as a contributor for the top-rated Fox News Channel.

Politics and parody collided on Saturday as Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made a self-deprecating appearance on "Saturday Night Live" in which she critiqued the performance of her comic doppelganger. The Republican vice presidential candidate endured a diatribe from actor Alec Baldwin, who pretended to mistake her for comedian Tina Fey, before opening the program with its signature line, "Live from New York, it's 'Saturday Night!'

Seeking to win this swing state's five electoral votes, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin made her first solo campaign stop in the lower 48 states Saturday, promising ethics reform, lower taxes and energy self-sufficiency. Palin, greeted by chants of "Sarah, Sarah," spoke to about 3,500 people for about 20 minutes. She was interrupted frequently by cheers and applause. And she led the audience in the now-familiar refrain: "Drill, baby, drill." "In a McCain-Palin administration, we're going to expand opportunity for new energy development," the Alaska governor said, promising she and John McCain would push to "drill now to make this nation energy-self-sufficient."

Geraldine A. Ferraro, the savvy New York Democrat who was embraced as a symbol of women's equality in 1984 when she became the first woman nominated for vice president by a major party, died Saturday at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She was 75. The cause was complications from multiple myeloma, her family said. Ferraro was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable form of blood cancer, in 1998. She did not disclose her illness publicly until 2001, when she went on NBC's "Today" show and said she had beaten the cancer into remission with thalidomide, the once-banned drug that had proven effective with some end-stage cancers.

In another mark of the changing tenor of his campaign for president, Howard Dean said Friday in a radio interview that he would be willing to accept the Democratic vice presidential nomination if it would help oust President Bush. Only a month ago, Dean stood atop polls in key states in the nominating process and pundits were beginning to speculate whom he might choose as a running mate. But on a morning talk show in Milwaukee, Dean was asked if he would accept a vice presidential nomination.